Let the rampant Apple speculation begin...

Apple invites journalists to an event next Tuesday with the come-on "Let's Rock". OK, but to what? (Updated)

Now that he's not dead, Steve Jobs has roused himself to gather the world's press in various cities around big screens to announce something next Tuesday. (The main event is at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco at 10 am Pacific Time next Tuesday.)

The question is, what? All the expectation is that it will be new iPod nanos - perhaps something a bit longer and thinner, more like the original than the current squab-shaped one. (Yes, squab.)

It was, after all, at a September event three years ago that the first iPod nano was unveiled - rather neatly, from Jobs's change pocket in his jeans; the invitation had had a picture of a change pocket.

So, using that deconstruction, and noting that there's generally something vaguely like a connection between the theme of the invite and what gets shown off, we can infer that this is something to do with iPods (note generic silhouette ad) and iTunes (note Coverflow-style pic).

That means, to me, that we might - might - also be seeing the introduction of the long-rumoured subscription model for iPods. Nokia has stolen a march, with its unlimited access for (certain) Nokia buyers:

Anyone willing buy a Nokia Comes With Music pre-pay phone will be able to download up to 2.1m music tracks - about a quarter of the number available from Apple's iTunes - onto their computer for no extra charge for 12 months.

That sound? Gauntlet being thrown down. Mark Mulligan at Jupiter (now owned by Forrester) thinks it would make sense for Apple to sell iPods preloaded with music, and to offer a subscription model. Doesn't mean it will happen, but you can see that once it's figured out the DRM for a subscription system (which it's done for films: watched films expire after 24 hours) then Apple could do it for music.

So my money's on new iPods, for the Christmas season, and perhaps iTunes music subscription.

But could it even be the long-rumoured but frequently-lost-in-prototyping iPod flea?

Update: Andy Ihnatko spills some small beans in a brief Twitter on Thursday evening: "Well, yes," I said. "If, _hypothetically,_ you were to ship new hardware to me, I _would_ be home the morning of the 10th to sign for it." You'll have to guess who that Apple-only reviewer may have been speaking to.